Quote Originally Posted by number6
Yes, Russell Brown confirmed this on Mediawatch today.

Apparently its coming "soon" (next 12 months), will be based on the Sky+ service/product offered in the UK, which unfortunately, is nothing much at all to write home about, if the crappy ads I saw for it in the UK earlier this year and the comparisons that Tivo users in the UK make about it compared to a UK Tivo.

Seems like the dear old Sky subscriber will have to pay for the feature - probably by shelling out another $20 a month forever to Sky for a mediocre product, that uses the EPG thats already coming "for free". Man that sucks.
A follow up on this:

Saturdays NZ Herald has a story about this being offered by Sky "late next year".

To quote the relevant parts of the story:
Quote Originally Posted by Nz_Herald
SKY TV will release a digital video recorder next year that will see the standard Sky decoder transformed into a device capable of storing hours of programming.

The personal video recorder (PVR) will work with Sky's electronic programming guide, allowing recordings to be pre-set with the Sky remote control unit.

...

Sky will ride on the coat-tails of Australian pay TV operator Foxtel to release a similar type of PVR here.

Sky chief executive John Fellet said the device would add $200 to $250 to the cost of a typical Sky installation.

Sky says it will release its electronic programming guide to third-party PVR vendors "eventually".

TV viewers can already buy hard disk drive-based recorders for about $500, but their usefulness is limited without an integrated programming guide.

Sky would likely place an order for 25,000 PVRs towards the end of next year.
Seems like Sky is trying to hold back the tide of PVRs by promising a solution "sometime soon".

Given the lead times of 25,000 PVRs early 2006 for "in your hands" for a Sky PVR modelled on the Foxtel unit sounds a bit like paying lip-service to the whole idea - especially when Sky previously announced similar intentions about 3 years ago.

The same goes their comments re: "releasing EPG data to third party-PVR makers (read Microsoft and others) 'eventually'".